The Sign Of The Pyramid: A Semiotic Journey

A Semiotic Re-evaluation

Chapter 10 of the Sagan Paradox, “From Sun Gods to StarChips,” presents a fascinating hypothesis. At its core, the text argues for a radical re-interpretation of ancient signs (pyramids, myths). It proposes a new code for their decoding – a code made available to us only through modern technology. We can powerfully illuminate this idea through the lens of Umberto Eco’s semiotic theory (A Theory Of Semiotics).

The Sign, the Code, and the Modern Interpretant

Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco posits that the relationship between a signifier (the physical form, like a word or image) and a signified (the concept it represents) creates meaning. Cultural codes govern this relationship. The text’s argument begins by establishing a new, contemporary code.

  • The Modern Sign: The “Breakthrough Starshot” initiative provides a new, tangible sign.
    • Signifier: The “StarChip” probe, a gram-scale, pyramidally-folded solar sail.
    • Signified (Denotation): An inexpensive, unmanned interstellar probe capable of reaching nearby stars within decades.
    • Code: 21st-century astrophysics and micro-engineering.

This modern sign acts as an interpretant – a new sign in our minds that allows us to re-evaluate older signs. The text successfully resolves “Sagan’s Paradox” not through philosophical argument. Instead, it demonstrates a shift in the technological code. Scientists can now achieve with a few kilograms of material what they once thought required ‘1% of the mass of all stars.’ This establishes the plausibility of the signifier (an interstellar probe) existing.

Aberrant Decoding: The “Cargo Cult” Hypothesis

The central thesis of the text is a classic case of what Eco termed aberrant decoding. This happens when someone interprets a message with a different code than the one the sender used. We hypothesize a prehistoric instance of First Contact as the ultimate example of this.

Imagine the following scenario:

  • The Sender (Hypothetical): An extraterrestrial intelligence.
  • The Message (Encoded): An autonomous probe, possibly resembling a “StarChip,” arrives on Earth. Its “meaning” is purely technological – a device for exploration. The code is one of advanced physics and engineering.
  • The Receiver: Ancient humanity.
  • The Decoding: Lacking the code of advanced technology, our ancestors could not interpret the object for what it was. They applied the dominant codes available to them: the mythological and the divine.

Thus, a technological artifact (the signifier) was aberrantly decoded. Its signified was not “interstellar probe” but “divine messenger,” “primordial creator,” or “celestial vessel.”

The Proliferation of the Sign: From Ur-Event to Cultural Memory

Eco’s concept of unlimited semiosis explains how a sign can generate an endless chain of subsequent signs (interpretants). The text argues that this single, misunderstood technological event (the “Ur-Sign”) rippled through human culture, creating a web of interconnected myths and symbols.

  • The Original Signifier: A pyramidal, reflective object descending from the sky and perhaps associated with a body of water (a common landing necessity).

This signifier generated multiple interpretants across different cultures, all retaining fragments of the original form and context:

  1. The Egyptian Interpretant: The signifier becomes the Benben stone, the pyramidal mound rising from the primordial waters of Nu, from which the sun god Atum-Ra emerges. The probe’s act of searching becomes the myth of the Eye of Ra. This is a “sentient probe” sent to find his lost children.
  2. The Abrahamic Interpretant: The signifier’s shape – a stable structure offering salvation from water – is remembered as Noah’s Ark. Recent analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls suggests a “pyramid-like roof” that powerfully reinforces this connection. It is not that the ark was a pyramid. Instead, they mapped the memory of a pyramidal savior-object onto the story of the ark.
  3. The Universal Interpretant: The probe’s function as a traveler from an unknown place becomes the recurring motif of scout birds and divine messengers (e.g., the dove in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible). These birds were sent across the water to find a home for humanity.
Semiotic analysis of the cargo cult hypothesis

The Monument as Interpretant: Building the Sign

The most profound outcome of this aberrant decoding, according to the text, is not just mythological but architectural. Faced with an awe-inspiring event they interpreted as divine, ancient peoples sought to reconnect with it. They did so by recreating the signifier.

The pyramids, therefore, are not alien artifacts. In semiotic terms, they are a monumental, physical interpretant. They are humanity’s attempt to reproduce the form of the divine visitor. This is a grand act of imitation meant to venerate the original event and perhaps solicit its return. The pyramids are the ultimate expression of a prehistoric “cargo cult” – a monument built not by aliens, but in memory of them.

Conclusion: A New Reading of History

By applying a semiotic framework, we can see that the argument in chapter 10 of the Sagan Paradox is not a simple “ancient astronauts” theory. It is a more nuanced claim about meaning, memory, and interpretation. It suggests that our ancestors witnessed a signifier they could not comprehend. Consequently, they spent millennia processing it through myth, religion, and architecture and signs.

The “Cosmic Mirror” metaphor at the end is apt. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence forces us to re-examine our own signs. The “Breakthrough Starshot” project does not just offer a future of exploration. It also provides a new code, a key that might unlock the meaning behind our most ancient and enigmatic symbols. The pyramids cease to be just tombs or temples. They become signs of a profound encounter, not with alien builders, but with human awe in the face of the unknown.

#SaganParadox #CargoCultTheory #AncientMysteries #Semiotics #PyramidDebate #BreakthroughStarshot #StarChip #UmbertoEco #CosmicMirror #AlienOrigins

The Sagan Paradox Chapter 10: From Sun Gods to StarChips

Re-evaluating First Contact in Light of New Technology

The Old Challenge: Sagan’s Paradox

Carl Sagan calculated in 1969 that to initiate the first contact between humans and aliens, we would need to launch 10,000 spaceships into space annually to have even the remotest chance of success. This endeavor would collectively consume about 1% of the mass of all stars in the universe for building materials. Therefore, it makes the task seem impossible.

The Modern Solution: Breakthrough Initiatives

Today, billionaires Yuri Milner and Mark Zuckerberg challenge this paradox. Their “Breakthrough Initiatives” is a scientific effort to find extraterrestrial intelligences. They aim to contact them and explore nearby planets.

Programs like “Breakthrough Starshot” want to send inexpensive unmanned probes, called “StarChips,” to nearby solar systems. They plan to first target Proxima B. The “StarChip” is a marvel of miniaturization. It contains a camera, battery, radio module, solar cells, a photon drive (an LED), and various instruments. Remarkably, it weighs only a few grams.

These nanoprobes will attach to solar sails. This enables laser-assisted accelerations of up to 15-20% of the speed of light. At those speeds, we can reach Alpha Centauri in 20-30 years. Unlike past concepts like the Longshot project, which would require billions of dollars for a single probe, a StarChip nanoprobe costs only around $20.

The launch laser constitutes the biggest cost factor. The project estimates a one-time investment of 5-10 billion dollars for the entire system. Once built, this laser could launch millions of probes. Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb suggests we could send these probes to every corner of the cosmos every year, without breaking a sweat.

Breakthrough Starshot successfully launch world’s smallest spacecraft

So, we now see that the material required to send 10,000 probes to the stars every year is only about 40 kilograms. It doesn’t require a significant proportion of the mass of the universe. That’s good.

This technological leap invites a profound question. What influence could the sighting or salvage of a StarChip-like probe have on extraterrestrial intelligent beings on their planets?

Cosmic Mirror

Think of the search for aliens as holding up a giant mirror to all of humanity. By looking for others out there, we end up looking for ourselves. It forces us to think about the signals and objects we’re sending into space and what it means to a planet full of people.

Erich Habich-Traut

The “Cargo Cult” Hypothesis

Could an alien “Starchip”-like probe have landed on Earth in the past?

Sagan himself did not rule out that Earth had been visited by aliens, a priori. Yet, he was a strong opponent of Erich von Däniken’s idea that aliens were directly involved in building the pyramids. Nevertheless, the origin myths of humankind, particularly from Mesopotamia and Egypt, pose intriguing questions.

Carl Sagan’s A Priori.

Mythological Parallels: Echoes of a Visitation?

The cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt play a major role in the origin myths of humankind.

According to the Egyptian creation myth of Heliopolis, in the beginning, there was endless, deep, dark water. From this roiling abyss a solitary, pyramidal mound called the Benben stone arose; the first point of order. Here a solitary intelligence, the sun god Atum-Ra, came into being. Alone, he brought forth two sentient forces: his son and daughter. He sent them out, to begin the great work of building a universe.

For a time, his children were lost. In his desperation, Atum-Ra decoupled a fragment of his consciousness, a sentient probe he called an Eye. He then sent it out to find his children. The eye roamed the vastness, found and returned the children to the pyramidal mound. Atum-Ra’s tears of joy fell on the Earth, and humanity was created.

Thereafter, Atum-Ra began sailing across the heavens in the solar boat of a million years.

Benben stones

…had great spiritual importance, they were the capstones of pyramids or obelisks. They represented the primordial mound from which the world was created.

The Great Pyramid of Khufu on the Giza plateau reveals eight-sides during the spring and autumn equinox.

Intriguingly, some solar sails, for instance those from the Breakthrough Starshot program, can bear a striking resemblance to a pyramid shape:

Notice the similarity to Khufu’s pyramid in the paper model. A solar sail would be folded similarly.

From the Egyptian creation story to the Sumerian Gilgamesh epic and the Bible, scout birds or flying eyes are common motifs. These epics also feature great bodies of water and voyages to find land.

In these tales it has always been the task of scout birds and divine messengers to find or return to a home for humankind. According to myth and legend, humanity arose on Earth from pyramidal “ships” or mounds – whether through offspring or tears.

Noah’s Ark as a pyramid?

There are a number of examples in art that depict the Ark as a pyramid.

The Gates Of Paradise

And it is not only some Renaissance sculptors and painters that depict Noah’s Ark as pyramidal. How did they come to this notion anyways? Haven’t we been taught in Sunday school that the Ark was a rectangular type boat shape? Maybe with a sloping roof?

Well, the idea of a pyramid -shaped Ark had been suggested much earlier, for instance by Origen of Alexandria in the 3rd century:

“I think that the ark, as much as is clear from the things that are described, had four angles rising from the bottom that gradually narrowed as they came to the peak and came together in the space of one cubit. Thus the cubit is the length and width of the peak.”


Torah Scholarship

This is echoed by the rational-mysticism school within the Chabad-Lubavitch movement of Orthodox Judaism. They explain that the Torah’s measurements prescribe a pyramid-shaped ark. I followed their instructions and drew this image:

Torah and Mathematics: The Secret of Noah’s Ark

Scientific Evidence

These interpretations are backed up by a recent analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It suggests that Noah’s Ark was described as having a pointed, pyramid-like roof.

This discovery was made possible by a project at the Israel Antiquities Authority. It used high-resolution scanning technology to reveal previously illegible text on the ancient parchments.

A Monument to a Memory

The convergence of evidence from archaeology, mythology, religious texts, and astronomy does not suggest that aliens built the pyramids.

Rather, it points toward a more compelling and profoundly human explanation. The pyramids are the ultimate expression of a prehistoric cargo cult. The argument is not that extraterrestrials directed their construction. Instead, our ancestors witnessed a singular, awe-inspiring event: the arrival of an autonomous or crewed probe from another world, perhaps resembling a modern solar sail, i.e. pyramidally shaped.

In any case, this “visitor,” with its pyramidal shape, would have been interpreted through a religious lens. It wasn’t a technological marvel; it appeared as a divine messenger. The recurring motifs across cultures – the pyramidal Benben stone from which life arose, the pointed roof of Noah’s Ark that saved humanity from the water, and the “Eye” of Ra sent to search the world – can be understood as fragmented cultural memories of this single technological apparition.

Faced with an event far beyond their comprehension, ancient peoples did what humans have always done: they sought to understand it, venerate it, and reconnect with it. They built pyramids not under alien instruction, but as a monumental act of imitation and worship.

These structures were humanity’s attempt to recreate the form of the “divine” object. They hoped to summon its return. Therefore, the pyramids are not an alien artifact, but an enduring monument to human awe and our innate drive to make sense of the unknown.

Alignment of the Giza plateau pyramids with Orion?

Sons of Orion

“The Nephilim were on the earth in those days – and also afterward – when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.”
Genesis 6:4

In the Aramaic language, a Semitic tongue closely related to Hebrew, the constellation Orion is known as Nephila (נְפִילָא). This has led some scholars to propose that the Hebrew “Nephilim” might be linked to this Aramaic term.

Scientists Now Hunt for ET’s GARBAGE!

You won’t believe the bizarre new way scientists are hunting for aliens! Forget listening for strange signals—the real proof might be in their TRASH! A team of maverick researchers is now searching for “technosignatures,” and their wild ideas are blowing the lid off the search for ET.

Scientists Now Hunt for ET’s GARBAGE!

The Cosmic Archaeologist:

Star astronomer Jason Wright makes the bombshell claim that alien junk—like their old space probes and pollution—could last for BILLIONS of years, making their garbage heap easier to find than the aliens themselves!

The Pollution Detective:

Researcher Jacob Haqq Misra is on the hunt for the ultimate smoking gun: cosmic factory fumes! He wants to find banned industrial chemicals and even signs of massive alien “space farms” in the atmospheres of distant worlds.

The Ocean Hunter:

But it gets weirder! Sofia Sheikh has the most mind-blowing theory yet—she wants to find microplastics in alien oceans! She even dares to ask if advanced ETs could be aquatic creatures who never needed fire and warns we could be looking right at their super-advanced worlds and be too blind to even notice!

https://web.archive.org/web/20220915101427/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/15/magazine/extraterrestrials-technosignatures.html

On the existence of “Pleiadians”

The Contact Project couldn’t call itself a “Contact Project” if it ignored thousands of contactees, experiencers, and mediums who have claimed to have made contact with non-earthly beings. I don’t believe they are all eccentrics and oddballs.

As a supporter of the extraterrestrial UFO hypothesis, I don’t exclude the possibility that humans from the future will visit Earth in the present day. This is as Michael Paul Masters has laid out in his books. Also, I have reason to believe that it is possible to travel faster than light in a warp bubble. For instance, see the work of Erik Lentz, on plasma warp bubbles. This automatically opens up the possibility of time travel into the past.

Listen to Seth Lloyd, MIT, on time travel:

Theoretical Foundation

1: I believe it is highly likely that future humanity will have spread out into the cosmos. Therefore, when they come to visit us from the future in the present, they will travel in spaceships. The mechanism for physical time travel is laid out in this short article: “Notes about Time Travel.”

2: In addition, the theory for telepathic communication (ESP in general) can be found in this series of articles: “Superluminal Brainwaves: Imagine a World Where Particles Travel Faster Than Light In A Different Dimension. This is the basis for credible claims of instantaneous telepathic communication, potentially spanning lightyears.

The concepts laid out in paragraphs 1 & 2 of the Theoretical Foundation are unique to this website. They have never been published before, neither in Science Fiction nor science.


Who are the Pleiadians?

The term Pleiadians—or Nordic aliens—refers to humanoid beings described in UFO lore as originating from the Pleiades star cluster.

The Pleaides star cluster is part of the constellation “Taurus”, as is Aldebaran.

According to accounts from contactees and channelers, these entities hail from the planets Erra and Temmer in the Taygeta star system. Taygeta is a double star in the constellation of Taurus. It is a member of the Pleiades open star cluster (M45). The Pleiades are also known as the “Seven Sisters.” In Mesopotamia, these “Divine Seven” were known as the minor gods “Sebitti.” Praying to them prevented enemies from causing harm.

Image: The Pleiadian Ashtar Sheran refers to an extraterrestrial being or group (of most likely “seven”), that some people claim to have channeled.

The Pleiadians are often described as tall, with fair skin, blue eyes, and blond hair, resembling the Nordic or Scandinavian human races. They are a highly evolved, spiritually advanced race that aims to help humanity progress toward greater understanding and harmony. These narratives derive solely from personal testimonies of experiencers and mediums.

Communication Claims and Contradictions

Pleiadians are allegedly encountered through direct contact or channeling. A prominent figure in these accounts is Ashtar, an extraterrestrial entity first mentioned by UFO contactee George Van Tassel in 1952.

Van Tassel’s claims inspired other mediums to report contact with Ashtar, though their messages often conflicted. Notably, predictions of imminent spacecraft landings linked to Ashtar repeatedly failed, undermining the credibility of such narratives.

Astronomical Context: The Pleiades Cluster

The Pleiades, a young open star cluster in Taurus, lies approximately 440 light-years from Earth. There are about 1000 stars in total in the Pleiades. Taygeta, a binary star within this cluster, is part of a system with no confirmed exoplanets. Crucially, the cluster’s age—100–150 million years—poses a significant problem for claims of native intelligent life.

On Earth, simple life emerged after 500 million to 1 billion years, with complex organisms requiring billions more. Given the Pleiades’ youth, the evolution of indigenous humanoid life there is astronomically improbable.

The Human Mind and Anthropomorphic Projection

Human cognition often interprets unfamiliar phenomena through familiar frameworks.

This tendency appears in Carl Sagan’s Contact. In it, aliens take the form of the protagonist’s deceased father to make an incomprehensible encounter relatable.

Similarly, descriptions of Pleiadians as Nordic humans may reflect a psychological need to frame extraordinary experiences in culturally recognizable terms. Specifically, projecting Aryan-like features onto alleged extraterrestrials. Furthermore, when someone tells of meeting or channeling “Pleiadians,” it is essentially their way of trying to understand the experience. By doing so, they provide a human frame with blond hair and Nordic features.

In summary, these descriptions may serve to bridge the gap between the extraordinary and the familiar. They help individuals make sense of their encounters.

Historical Fascination and Modern Speculation

Humanity’s interest in the Pleiades spans millennia, as evidenced by artifacts like the 3,600-year-old Nebra Sky Disc, which depicts the cluster. While the Pleiades’ stars are too young to host native civilizations, some speculate that advanced beings from older regions of the galaxy might have colonized the cluster. Yet, no credible evidence supports this hypothesis.

Conclusion

Claims of Pleiadians are rooted in mythology, channeling, and UFO culture. Scientifically, the Pleiades’ age and lack of confirmed planets render the existence of indigenous humanoids implausible. While extraterrestrial settlers could theoretically inhabit the cluster, such ideas remain speculative. Ultimately, the Nordic alien narrative likely reflects humanity’s enduring desire to find familiarity and peace—in the heavens as on Earth.

Image: The author’s finger with a replica of the Phaistos Disc from the Minoan civilization on Crete from approx. 1600 BC. Several Pleiades or “Seven Sisters”-like logos or shields appear on it. The alphabet and language on the disk are unknown. 

The magnificent Seven

From the second millennium BC onward, the “Sebitti” (Pleiades) were often represented as groups of seven dots. They were always of masculine character, not “sisters.” The icon on the Phaistos disk is therefore possibly a depiction of the Sebitti, as there was a lively exchange between the Mesopotamian/Akkadian civilization and Crete.

On a more fundamental level it appears that the Mesopotamian Sebitti Gods have found a modern expression. This is seen in the belief in the New Age Pleiadians, Ashtar Sheran among them.

Fact Check

  • Distance: Pleiades is 444 light-years from Earth.
  • Age: 100–150 million years old (vs. Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history of life development).
  • Planets: None confirmed in the cluster due to its youth and unstable stellar environment.
  • Life Potential: Simple life would require 500 million+ years to emerge; complex life far longer. The Pleiades’ timeline makes native intelligence virtually impossible.

Curious about the mysteries of the universe? Dive deeper into the world of UFO lore, time travel theories, and the fascinating stories surrounding extraterrestrial encounters. Explore our collection of articles and stay informed—unlock the secrets of the stars today!

Taurus: the” “Sacred Horns” of a bull at the palace of Knossos on Crete.